With Wright spearheading a defense that did not allow a touchdown for the fourth consecutive week, and with Clay Ardoin running for three first-half scores and quarterback Kelsey Brandow throwing a pair of touchdown passes to Dustin Ferguson, the Blue Devils had no trouble bowling over the Redskins 48-0 in a Class D East game Saturday at Bernie Block Field.

Dolgeville (3-0, 4-1), still tied with Notre Dame for the Class D East lead, has not lost since Class C Herkimer blanked the Blue Devils 19-0 in their nonleague season opener.

"That wasn't Dolgeville football," said Wright. "We weren't playing up to those standards. We weren't happy with that performance, not at all. We knew we were better than that. That's what we're trying to prove.

"Everybody's firing on all cylinders now. Everybody's playing angry."

A week after that loss to Herkimer, the Blue Devils rebounded with a 14-0 nonleague win over Class C neighbor Little Falls. And in their first three Class D East games, they have outscored teams 172-3, including a 70-0 win at New York Mills and last week's 54-3 win over Richfield Springs.

On Saturday, against an Oriskany team that two weeks ago was 3-0, Dolgeville's swarming defense limited the Redskins to 22 total yards and three first downs, and the offense churned out 363 yards on the ground.

Ardoin, a hard-running, 187-pound junior who sat out the final quarter with the rest of Dolgeville's starters, rushed for 146 yards on 15 carries. Shane Lyon added 68 yards on 12 carries, Paul Barnes ran for 60 yards and a touchdown and Andy Johnston had 42 yards on six attempts.

Ryan O'Neil led Oriskany (1-2, 3-2) with 39 yards rushing on 10 carries.
"We got off to a rough start in our first game, but we've really bounced back," said Ardoin. "That game (against Herkimer) kind of opened our eyes."

Ardoin converted fumble recoveries by Jeff Sutton and Ferguson into touchdown runs of 25 and 53 yards. In between, a 15-yard facemask penalty nullified a third-down stop by Oriskany, and Wright later scored on an 8-yard run.

"That's typical Dolgeville football - you make a mistake, they're going to take advantage and make you pay," said Oriskany coach Bob Reid. "They were physically stronger than we were. You look at us and you look at them, and we're bigger, but they're stronger. They're tough to move and they were moving us around.

"They run hard, and they run low to the ground. We were coming up and putting some hits on them, but they were running through us. And offensively, (Dolgeville's defense) limited us. They stopped almost everything we tried."

Defensive end Collin Youker was in on four of Dolgeville's seven sacks - Doug Gray and Gabe Kashuba had the others - and Barnes had an interception for the Blue Devils.

"The kids are playing responsible football," said Dolgeville coach Chris Connolly. "We're not huge, they're just sound, smart football players. ? They know what's going on and they're clicking."